What Have You Fettled Today?

[Spoked Wheels]

I serviced a set of wheels with Shimano 105 hubs.

Cup and cone bearing adjustment is always a matter of trial an error, not matter how many times you this. The last two times I did this I got it spot on very quickly so I thought "I think I've mastered the technique " but today it took 4 and 5 attempts to get it right. Anyway, the job is done now and wheels are ready for another year.

 

[Karlt]

[QUOTE 3961061, member: 43827"]Could it be that the gear hanger is bent? Do you have access to a hanger adjuster tool to test it?[/QUOTE]

It could be and no I don't. It's quite a likely option thinking about it. I'll give it a visual inspection before I ride home tonight - it's probably more likely than the derailleur itself, thinking about it.

 

[Karlt]

It could be and no I don't. It's quite a likely option thinking about it. I'll give it a visual inspection before I ride home tonight - it's probably more likely than the derailleur itself, thinking about it.

Well what do you know - that explains why I had to adjust the indexing away from the lower gears - normally as cables stretch you'd expect to have to go the other way - and the problem with hitting the spokes on the lowest gear - the derailleur is tilted towards the wheel - and the tilt seems to start at the hanger.

 

[Karlt]

[QUOTE 3963057, member: 43827"]I do a lot of work on my and my friends' bikes and find the hanger adjuster tool a great help. I know it can be done visually but I prefer using the tool. Costs around £20 if I remember correctly but well worth it.[/QUOTE]

I might have to get one. Took me a while to get it sorted the other night. Of course, being tilted knocks out the indexing so if it works at the top of the cassette it doesn't work at the bottom. Now it's straight it's working fine. Or as fine as a derailleur built for early indexed 6-speed can on 8-speed with a relatively cheap Claris brifter

 

[Slioch]

Just finished upgrading the groupset on my Carrera Virtuoso Halfords special from 2300 to full Tiagra. This is my winter bike, and I've always promised to treat myself to an upgrade as and when finances allow.
The parts upgraded are...
Brifters
Cables
Rear & Front derailleur
Cassette
Chainset
Chain
Bottom bracket
Brake calipers

Took me 3 evenings to get it right. Seems to be all working ok on the stand, so looking forward to a proper test ride tomorrow.
Fingers crossed

Oh, and the old components have scrubbed up well with a bit of life left in them yet, so will be donated to the The Bike Rescue Project in York for recycling.

 

[HLaB]

Tightened the barrel adjuster on the T2 and pumped it tyes up to 105psi, if you can call that fettling :-/

 

[Gravity Aided]

From Wednesdays trading spree, I finished fixing and tightening handlebar on my Electra Deluxe Classic 3, then rode 12 miles on it.

 

[DaveReading]

Decided to revolutionise my chain maintenance regime as I seem to have been using the world's stickiest oil - chain, RD, rings and cassette are caked with black gunge, though TBH my shifts are fine so I was tempted to leave well alone.

First task was to try to find the quicklink under the black gunge.

That done, my next instinct was to Google for a new chain from a local supplier, as I couldn't face cleaning it, but the Scot in me balked at paying 8 quid for something that might not be necessary, so it was out with the degreaser and toothbrush. After an overnight soak and a good scrub, it was clean enough to do a wear check, only a couple of percent elongation so good enough for a few hundred miles more. Obviously I didn't then stick it in the dishwasher to finish the cleaning process, rinse it out and then 10 minutes in the oven at 50C to dry it out. Oh no.

With a chain that I could eat my lunch off now, time to look at the rest of the transmission. It was clear that both the chainrings and cassette were going to have to come off to clean them properly. I couldn't face taking the crank off, so I made do with undoing the spider bolts so I could get two of my triple rings off, and just cleaned the granny ring in situ. I'd had my SRAM 8-speed cassette off before, so I knew that I could split it into individual cogs which made cleaning it a lot easier.

With everything spotless and reassembled, I reached for my newly-acquired bottle of ProGold and pondered how to apply it. After experimenting with a syringe (without a needle) and getting most of it on the floor, I settled on a paintbrush to apply the ProGold individually to each link followed by a final wipe to remove any excess.

A quick ride around the block confirmed that everything was working smoothly, not sure if it was my imagination but pedalling seemed marginally easier now I'm not shifting all that crud around. Riding to the pub later, so we'll see if it's still easy on the way back uphill after a couple of pints.

 

[youngoldbloke]

With everything spotless and reassembled, I reached for my newly-acquired bottle of ProGold and pondered how to apply it. After experimenting with a syringe (without a needle) and getting most of it on the floor, I settled on a paintbrush to apply the ProGold individually to each link followed by a final wipe to remove any excess.

You need a 'blunt needle' to go with the syringe. Sold for refilling printer ink cartridges. It will be more efficient and ecomomical than the paintbrush!

 

[Profpointy]

not bike related, and a week since rather than today, but huge bungled but finally sucessfull fault finding on my hoover - a quite expensive but not very old Festool which connects up to a power tool (eg sander) as well as normal hoovering. Did a load of dust-extracted sanding - machine died, leaving a lot of not extracted duat on the floor. Fuse Ok, took it apart - power ti the board, no power to motor. Lots of debugging (live) with multimeter as well as reaistance checks and decided the control board was faulty - a £60 part - ouch! This detects when a power tool is connected and fired up to automatically turn on the hoover. Motor itself works if direct to mains. Ok I'll ditch the board just to check if it will work in fully manual mode instead - stuff the too-hot trip switch - I'll do without. Now no longer works - wtf? Turns out it was an intermittent break in the mains lead - so all the other careful debugging was leading to random results. So rejoin all the cables I'd cut to test stuff, cut 12" of dud bit off the cable and job's jobbed. Anyoing as if I'd spotted the fault in the first place would have taken 15 mins rather than most of an afternoon. And if the cable had actually not decided to work for a bit whilst I first checked it would have been much easier too.

 

[DaveReading]

You need a 'blunt needle' to go with the syringe. Sold for refilling printer ink cartridges. It will be more efficient and ecomomical than the paintbrush!

Thanks. Come to think of it, I've probably got some of those somewhere from the time I used to have endless fun refilling my inkjet cartridges.

 

[Psycolist]

Not so much 'todays fettle', more like the last 3 weeks fettle. Pleased is a tad understated. Picked up a very shabby Big Sur frame off Fleabay about six weeks ago. Spent a couple of weeks planning an sourcing the bits I was short of, then three weeks ago I started. Two weeks were spent sanding and preparing the frame, and last weekend spraying and stickering. This weekend spent building, and, as I hope you can see, the result is great. So far I have only had a poodle up to town and back, I hope to get out into the rough stuff next weekend.

 

[wisdom]

New work bench built in the garage along with a massive vice which om sure will come in handy

 

[Gravity Aided]

Converted Raleigh Technium 460 to 700c from 27". Greased bottom bracket on Schwinn commuter , a drop bar 26" old mtb conversion, and added a couple of missing screws to my Electra Classic Deluxe3, the ones that hold the cable to the Shimano Nexus 3 speed. I may add a front brake, as this is a coaster brake now, I just don't trust my chain that much! It does make for a nice clean bike when no cables are around, except the one that controls the three speed.

 

[Chris S]

I may add a front brake, as this is a coaster brake now, I just don't trust my chain that much! It does make for a nice clean bike when no cables are around, except the one that controls the three speed.

Good idea - the chain slipped off my AW hub at the weekend. The axle nut had worked slightly lose and the sprocket was now at a slight angle to the chain.